Microsoft needs to be punished. This is simply the latest in a long series of insulting, arrogant statements by Microsoft regarding the Xbox One and more specifically, regarding Microsoft’s unending contempt for the consumer. This particular statement is especially heinous because it deals directly with the massive outcry against their magical TV box and dismisses the objections outright with the rationale that knuckle-dragging core gamers (that would be us) will blindly buy whatever they are given whether they like it or not. They actually believe that TV is the future of the Xbox and gamers are not worth their time.
“Right now we're eight years into this platform - we didn't have a single music video [at launch], we didn't have any entertainment, and now we're seeing half our usage globally driven from entertainment apps.”
The above quote, taken from the same OXM UK interview with Phil Spencer has interesting implications. While what he says is completely true, it isn’t necessarily a good thing for MS. If you recall, when the 360 launched, it launched as a gaming platform first and foremost. That was also the era when they were destroying Sony in sales. Sony, on the other hand was trying to bill the PS3 as an all in one device early in its life (“It only does everything.”). As Microsoft has introduced more and more extraneous fluff, their lead has dwindled. As more and more users are utilizing the 360 as a media consumption device instead of a gaming device, their lead has dwindled. As Sony has introduced more gamer, indie, and consumer friendly (though certainly not all consumer friendly, lest we forget the online pass bullshit) services, they have been slowly catching up in a race that by all rights should have been long lost.
Let’s look at that quote more closely, shall we? “We didn’t have a single music video [at launch]...” This is true. You had gamers playing games on your game console. You had a sizeable lead against your main competitor. You were commonly thought of as the core gamer’s console. You had the enviable position of the underdog taking on the behemoth and winning, and you did so by focusing on games. Not gimmicky controllers, not television, not movies, you focused on games. And in focusing on games, you beat Sony at theirs. “...we didn’t have any entertainment...” Because, as we all know, games are not entertainment. Full body motion control TV is entertainment. “...and now we’re seeing half our usage globally driven from entertainment apps.” And you are seeing sales fall. And you are seeing Sony catch up to you in a race that was yours to lose. And you are seeing consumers revolt. And you are seeing indies revolt. You planted the seeds of DRM, the seeds of always on, the seeds of destroying used games, the seeds of TV first games later, the seeds of anti-consumer, anti-indie, anti-games bullshit. You planted these seeds at your own door and you are reaping what you’ve sown. The massive outcry against the Xbox One is the free market correcting itself. It is consumers, tired of being treated as ATMs, as blind, stupid cash machines. It is gamers standing up and finally saying that the line must be drawn here. That we won’t simply bend over and take it anymore. And Sony? Sony had better be listening.
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